Mythica von Griffyn says her connection to the person she paints goes deeper than some people may think. "It's a spiritual process," she explains. "I follow the same principals of Dr. Emato, who found that by writing words on jars of water, the water would form different crystallized compounds at the molecular level. The jars of water with "love" written on the front, for example, would crystallize to form a snowflake shape, while the water with "hate" written on its jar would turn green and globular."

Emato claimed the energy in the word correlated to the energy in the water, changing its composition. Von Griffyn employs Emato's theory in her work and she did so during a live body painting performance at Xcentricity Gallery Friday, part of the First Friday event for the show The Body Sacred.

Photo by Leonard Archuleta

"If that type of energy transfer happens when you just put a word on a jar of water, imagine what happens to the energy between the water in people when they interact with each other," says von Griffyn. "That's why the whole time I'm painting, I'm thinking and saying, 'You're beautiful,' to whomever I'm painting. It's important that I love myself, too -- that I don't hate myself or my body during the process."

Von Griffyn, a local body painter and chalk artist, and Sophia Rose, the gallery owner, performed a four hour collaborative effort painting model Jazmine Montano to match a large-scale doodle art background. The live body painting performance made the First Friday event a success.

Check out this video of the complete four hour transformation in quick time, by Leonard Archuleta:

"We were really busy," Rose says. "Normally we're a lot slower in the winter, but we got about as many people as we get during the summer. People were leaving and coming back, too, so they could see the body painting develop."

Rose and von Griffyn, who met at one of Rose's classes, did not plan to match the model Montano to the background originally, since the painting was spontaneous. But, says von Griffyn, Montano ended up blending in so well people couldn't see her from the street.

Rose, who had never body painted before, and von Griffyn both say their experience was successful because of the spiritual connection they felt to Montano. "We were talking to the canvas, the model, and telling her how beautiful she was," says Rose. "We painted on her all this healing and love and beauty. It's peaceful, and it's an act of magic and transformation."

Photo by Leonard Archuleta

"All these people kept coming up and saying how beautiful everything was," von Griffyn adds. "If that positive energy is affecting my water, it's affecting Jazmin's water too, and the water of the people around us. That's why I do it."

Griffyn and Rose had so much fun, they're collaborating again. Rose plans on another event at Xcentricity, featuring multiple body painters at the same time (details are still in the works) and they are participating in a RAW art event at Casselman's on April 5, replicating the creation they made Friday.